Color me surprised … the Elixer of Awake without Jitters …

(word of warning – I’m kind of tired – so this may make less sense than usual!)

The phrase “Best laid plans of mice and men” go awry with the pass of a hand really explains my weekend and proves the necessity of having friends who “get” you …

I’ve been going slightly spare with this Grant Writing for Non-Profits class. It has taken forever to find an idea that is remotely worth the amount of work to read through an insanely dry text and put up with the instructor videos which are just painful to watch. I think I mentioned that I was finally able to come up with at least an interesting idea – whether or not it is feasible is completely immaterial – after doing 6 loads of laundry and running in to a friend at Walmart. When he noticed I was sprinkling the floor with Newman’s Own Organics dry dog food, he laughed and said he’d see me over at his house. Yeah – I needed to get away from the chaos of my apartment. I was able to slog through the 4 chapters while being enveloped in one of the most comfortable couches I’ve ever fallen in to … in the relative cool that my apartment won’t see again until … oh … November?

Monday last week, I was in enough overwhelm where I said to my friends I was going to a convention with that weekend that I wasn’t going to go. Overwhelm and that general “EEEEIIIIIIKKKKK” feeling was taking over. Cooler heads prevailed — quite obviously not mine. I think the argument was something about my needing to get out, spend time with friends and play with my friends. We get fits of giggles sometimes as we have simular senses of humor and after my last couple of weeks, I could use unrestrained giggling. It takes a little pulling sometimes, but so be it. I guess this is when having friends that you really love spending time with and trust enough to be tired or a little spacey around.

I’ve stated this before – it takes a lot of energy to be me. I was rather concerned that I was pretty tired when I got to the opening night schmooze on Friday night. Since I’m always surprised when anyone remembers me, I was sort of hoping that I could kind of fly under the radar … yeah right … I’d had a long week, so one of my favorite past-times is people watching … so schmooze fests where I don’t know many people work wonders. I still was concerned about my energy level, but thought I might perk up. Not more than a few moments after I got there, I ran in to Calvin and Grace. My natural aversion to carrying a cell phone makes finding people a little difficult so it was really good to see them early on. As we were talking, Calvin mentioned he’d brought one of his 5-Hour Energy things … quite honestly, my buds think of everything. I’d thought this stuff was seriously vile in the past, but I’ve been on the hunt for a “pick-me-up” which did not lead to jitters, had a steady rise and was legal. He’s been telling me about this stuff and I’ve kind of looked at him sideways. He’s even gotten it from me when a 3 bottle of it was in one of my race “goodie” bags. As a jaded long time coffee drinker, I was a bit skeptical. but I get serious jitters from stuff like Monster and glunk like that. “Lis, trust me …” I just kind of looked at Calvin when handed me the bottle to share when we were going to go schmooze – oh hell, might as well give the stuff a chance. As I tipped the tiny bottle back, all I could think of was the Harry Potter book where Harry wins the potions prize of Liquid Luck … something about just a swallow should do it for a few hours. Yeah – I not only made it through the evening of wondering if I could put names to faces and hanging out with my friends, this ADD Princess felt pretty darned clear … surprising as I’d had so little sleep that week. Of course, as a previous post reads … the bottom dropped out of the car and scraped along.

Unlike coffee or most other things, this 5-hour stuff just has an easy ride and I was so ready to go to sleep until that stupidity happened. Since we were sharing the bottle, I’d popped the bottle with the last little slurp of it into my bag without thinking about it … sometimes my subconscious takes lovely care of me! I’d had maybe 2 hours of sleep when the Enterprise Rent A Car guy came to pick me up. I’ve operated on no sleep before – I’ve toured with music off and on for howmany years? While I was on the phone dealing with the rental, I was able to text my buds saying the panicked message I’d left the night before was more or less handled. I tossed a bag of granola stuff in my pocket book, slurped the last of the 5 hour stuff thinking that it would at least get me going and my natural energy would keep me going until it was time to pass out. Zippety doo da –> Got the rental. Got to the convention. Missed a seminar that I thought might be interesting. Missed the walking group I’d promised I would go to. Rental smelled a bit like cigarettes … I walked in the door of the convention hall just feeling mixed. Two up, Three down … I needed an up feeling to make me feel even … sigh. Just go with it … although I was too late for the seminar, I had plenty of time to wander about the expo. A convention friend (lack of a better term) found me as I was going in, so I had someone to walk with. A little mindless wandering, seeing interesting things and by the time I saw my friends, I was feeling remotely human … yeah!

What I’d been told about this stuff was that it didn’t do the Zip thing, but helped keep one clear to be able to do what was needed … without sugar … without the fast up and smashing crash after. It truly saved me this weekend and being that it is a screw lid, you don’t have to swallow all of it. It worked really well on me … whose nervous system has been bathed in caffine for how many years? I seriously think it’ll end up in my race bag – especially for when I have to get up and do a very long drive after a race – like Fresno … or doing the double dip of Disney then having to function at the swamped and short-attention-span-theater of the Orlando Airport.

After this weekend of this stuff being in the gig bag … well … I’m sold on liquid gold … and it doesn’t taste terrible. … And Calvin … if you’re reading this … dancing around singing “I told you so!!!” just isn’t becoming … but yes … you were right … now go eat chocolate, ok!